


Amity Takes Gus Under Her Wing

by Amity_towards_all



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:14:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 11,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26704306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amity_towards_all/pseuds/Amity_towards_all
Summary: When Amity sees someone bullying Gus, she decides to teach him how to stand up for himself, but that soon starts to look an awful lot like bullying in its own right.Then when Gus resists her tutelage, she slips him a potion to make him meaner, with disastrous results.Check out chapters 3 and 6 for some really cute fanart!
Relationships: Amity Blight & Gus Porter, Amity Blight & Willow Park, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 76
Kudos: 131





	1. Amity "Helps" Gus

It was the day after Amity's adventure in Willow's brain with Luz, and as Amity made her way through the halls of Hexside, she didn't know quite where she stood with... well, anyone really. She'd promised Willow that she'd never let Boscha or the others pick on her again, but did that mean she could still be friends with Boscha, or would that prove to be impossible? And she wasn't quite friends with Willow yet either, and she didn't know when she would be, if ever. The only person she was on relatively uncomplicated terms with was Luz. At least, that's what she hoped. But after everything that had happened the day before, what if Luz's opinion of her had changed too?

As Amity contemplated, she saw Willow's little friend, Augustus. Should she greet him? She wasn't sure. Then, she saw a girl who looked around his age or a little bit older grab his backpack.

"Hey! Give that back!" Gus said.

"Make me!" the girl said.

Amity got excited. This was her chance to defend Willow's friend from a bully, just like she'd promised to do for Willow from now on! She walked over and stepped lightly on the girl's foot.

"Hey!" she said.

"Oh, sorry," Amity said. "Your feet are so big I guess I just couldn't avoid them."

The girl looked down at her feet, during which time Amity grabbed the bag from her. "I don't think this belongs to you. If you had the taste to pick out a bag like this, you wouldn't have that awful haircut."

“What?” the girl said as she rubbed her hair with her left hand. Then, she ran off.

Amity tossed the bag to Gus.

"You're Augustus, right?"

"Yeah..." he said with a little uncertainty.

"From now on, any time someone gives you trouble, you can come to me, OK?"

"Uh, thanks, but wasn't stepping on her foot and insulting her hair a little much?"

Amity was surprised and a little annoyed. She'd just helped Augustus, and now he was going to cavil about just how she'd done it?

"But... she was bullying you."

"That's just Vasya. She's not bad, it's just we had an argument earlier. She would've given it back."

"Oh... well, that doesn't matter. If people see her picking on you and getting away with it, they'll think you're weak and start going after you themselves. Understand?"

"OK, but that hasn't really been a problem for me. I'm OK."

As Gus walked away, Amity shook her head. Some people just didn't know what was in their own best interests.


	2. Amity’s Lessons Begin

At the end of the day, as Amity was ready to head home, she saw Gus again as he was putting away his books. Then, she saw Mattholomule pass by.

“Hey, Augustus,” he sneered. “I‘m heading over to the Human Appreciation Society. It’s a shame you can’t come!”

Gus rolled his eyes. “You say that literally every time you see me. Can’t you come up with anything new? The Human Appreciation Society doesn’t even meet today.”

Mattholomule just walked off chuckling.

Amity came over. “Augustus, who is that, and why did you let him talk to you that way?”

“Oh, that’s just Mattholomule. He’s harmless. Honestly, he’s kind of pathetic.”

“All the more reason you shouldn’t let him get away with that!” Amity shook her head. “I’m going to do you a favor. I’m going to teach you how to stand up for yourself.”

“I can stand up for myself.”

“It doesn’t look that way to me! Don’t you want to be respected? Don’t you want people to give you the credit you deserve?”

“Hmm... well, that does sound pretty good.”

“Trust me, once I’m done with you, no one will ever cross you again.”

“Well, OK, I’ll give it a try.”

“Great! Let’s get started.”


	3. The Lessons Derail

Amity and Gus found an empty classroom to practice in.

"OK, Augustus," Amity said. "If you're going to stand up for yourself, you're going to need to be able to hone in on people's insecurities."

"But isn't that kind of mean?"

"It's a mean world out there. Sometimes you have to be a little mean to survive."

"Well, OK I guess."

"All right, why don't you practice on me."

"Are you sure you won't get angry?"

"Not at all. It's just an exercise. Now, it might take you a while to come up with something-"

"Actually, I've got a few already."

"Oh... well, OK what've you got?"

"Did you say 'hone in on their insecurities' just now?"

"Yeah."

"I think you meant 'home in on'."

"Oh..." Amity blushed. "Well, that's not much. You're going to have to come up with something more personal than that."

"Oh, sorry. I just thought since you're always reading, that's the kind of thing you'd be embarrassed about getting wrong."

“Well, I’m not,” she replied, still blushing.

"OK, well, I have wondered why you dye your hair but let your brown roots show so much."

Amity reached towards her hair. "Oh, I didn't think it was that noticeable."

"And it's kind of funny that you used to make fun of Willow for not being powerful enough and now she's more powerful than you."

"I don’t know if I’d say _more_ powerful–"

“And there’s the way you always go on about being top student–”

“OK, I think that’s enough of that. Let’s move on to someone else. What do you know about that girl who took your bag? What’s her name?”

“Vasya? Well, I know it really bothers her when her parents compare her to her cousin.”

“That’s great stuff! Now, if only we could find her…”

“Find her?”

“Yeah, so you can use that to put her in her place.”

“But didn’t you already do enough this morning?”

“It has to come from you. Otherwise, she’ll just pick on you when I’m not around.”

“But she doesn’t really pick on me. This morning was an outlier.”

“Yeah, and you need to show her that you won’t tolerate that kind of behavior, not even once, and ideally in front of as many people as you can. Do you know where she might be?”

“I think today she goes to the Scrying Club after school.”

“OK, let’s get to it.”

* * *

Amity watched from around the corner as Gus waited outside the room where the Scrying Club met. The club let out, and Vasya spotted Gus.

“Hey, Augustus,” she said. “Sorry about fighting with you this morning.”

“Oh… uh… that’s OK…”

Gus looked over to Amity uncertainly. She made a fist with her right hand and started pounding it into her left.

“Uh… I bet your cousin would never do something like that.”

Vasya looked at the ground and she meekly said, “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Was it Gus’s imagination, or were her eyes starting to water a little? “I’ll see you around.”

Vasya turned around and slowly walked off with her head held low.

Amity went over. “OK, not your best work, but it’s a start.”

“Amity, I really didn’t like doing that. She got more upset than I thought. I don’t think she deserved that.”

“It’s not a matter of what she deserves. It’s a matter of showing that no one can cross you and get away unscathed.”

“But I just don’t think I need that.”

“I’m telling you that you do! Now let’s work on what’s-his-name, Matthanimal.”

“Mattholomule. I don’t think that’s necessary. Thanks, but I’m just going to go home.”

“Don’t you get it? If you don’t learn how to do this now you’re just going to get bullied and picked on for the rest of your life! Is that what you want?! Is it?!”

Gus, was leaning back and looked a little afraid. That made Amity realize that she was looming over him, and her voice had risen more than she’d realized. She took a step back, smiled, and said in what she hoped was a friendlier tone, “And that’s why I’m trying to help you.”

“Amity, are you OK?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It’s just, you seem to be getting kind of emotional about this.”

“What? This has nothing to do with me, OK? _I’m_ trying to help _you_!”

“Well, I appreciate that, but I don’t think I need it.”

Gus started walking away.

“Listen, Augustus, if you don’t learn this from me now, you’re just going to regret it!”

But Gus didn’t say anything back. Fine, as far as Amity was concerned, if he wanted to live life as a victim, then so be it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out this really cute fan art!
> 
> I'm so grateful! You can check out more of their great work [here!](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/dumbassv32/631196002526937088)


	4. The Potion

In class the next day, Amity was taking notes when she noticed a cramp in her hand. Without realizing it, she’d been holding her pencil in a vice-like grip and putting so much pressure on it that she’d nearly pierced through the paper she was writing on. As she stretched out her hand, she wondered why she was so bothered by Gus rejecting her lessons.

That day, the potions professor was giving a guest lecture on the various potions commonly used to change or enhance abominations. Amity wasn't that interested. Any top-notch abominationist would be able to do all that to their abominations without the aid of any potion, and Amity had every intention of becoming a top-notch abominationist. But she carefully took notes anyway since she knew this would be on the test.

After describing each potion, the professor let the class look at them and pass them around. Amity took a vial with a sparkly, purple potion from the student next to her, a girl with black feathers in place of hair named Chickadee. A drop could shrink an abomination for about thirty seconds, useful for getting a big abomination through a small door or something along those lines. She examined it for a few seconds before passing it to the student behind her.

Then the professor picked up a vial with a dark red potion.

“Hmm… should we skip this? No, we have time. _This_ potion is designed to increase an abomination’s aggression. Pour a vial of this into an abomination and it’ll violently attack anything around it without any commands. It used to also be given to beasts during the wars of the Savage Ages.”

That got Amity’s attention. If it worked on beasts as well as abominations, then it stood to reason that it would work on witches too, right? And if the whole vial would make whatever took it attack, what would a tiny droplet do? Would it perhaps make a witch just a little more assertive and willing to stand up for himself?

Amity raised her hand.

“Yes?”

“Professor, is there an antidote to the potion?”

“Yes, but the potion wears off after about a day, so it’s usually unnecessary.”

One day. Maybe that’s all it would take for people to start treating Gus with some respect, and then he'd realize just how much better his life would be if he followed her advice.

The potion made its way to Amity. Her eyes darted around. No one was looking at her. Could she really do this? What would she say if she got caught? She almost lost her nerve, but thought about the girl taking Gus’s bag and Mattholomule teasing him and got so angry that she just had to risk it.

Amity quickly but discretely took out the eyedropper used to add ingredients to abominations in small amounts, uncapped the vial, and drew up a tiny drop of the potion before putting the cap back on and passing the vial to the student behind her.

Amity breathed a sigh of relief that she'd gotten away with it. Then, she glanced to the side and noticed Chickadee staring right at her.

* * *

Amity spent the rest of the class in silent dread. At least Chickadee hadn't raised her hand to tell the professor right then and there. After class ended, Amity motioned for Chickadee to follow her and they made their way to a quiet spot.

"Amity, why did you take a drop of that potion?"

Amity figured she could've probably intimidated Chickadee into keeping her mouth shut, but she decided to play it a different way. "Please don't tell anyone. I just wanted to try out the potion, see how it works."

"But why do you want to make an abomination more aggressive?"

"Aggressive? What are you talking about? I took a drop of the shrinking potion."

Chickadee's brow furrowed. "But... but I could've sworn it was the the other potion."

"No, no! Why would I want a drop of the aggression potion? Besides, you'd need the whole vial of that one to make an abomination violent. A drop would barely do anything."

Amity watched as Chickadee mulled over what she'd just said. She only hoped that Chickadee wouldn't ask to see the eyedropper. She thought of how she might talk her way out of that, but luckily that wasn't necessary.

"Huh... yeah, that wouldn't make any sense, would it?" Chickadee said after only a few moments, though it felt much longer than that to Amity. "OK, if it was just the shrinking potion, I guess it's no problem. Hey, could I watch when you use it? I don't know why they'd show us all those potions and not demonstrate any of them. I really want to see it!"

"Uh... yeah... sure..."

"Oh great! I can't wait!"

Chickadee ran off, leaving Amity to wonder just how she was going to get out of _this_ mess.


	5. Tricking Chickadee

Amity studied how to make a big abomination temporarily shrink, but it was incredibly complicated. It would take much too long for her to master it. And she wouldn’t even know where to begin trying to get that potion from the professor. That meant that, as much as she hated to admit it, she was going to need someone else's help.

Boscha immediately came to mind. She could probably whip up that potion. But Amity knew that if she was going to exert influence over Boscha to stop her from picking on Willow in the future, asking her for a favor now would only weaken her position.

What if she was looking at this the wrong way? Instead of really making a big abomination shrink, what if she made a small abomination look big? That meant illusion magic. Ed and Em could do it no problem, but she didn’t want to go to them if she could avoid it. How would she explain this situation to them?

Then her mind turned to Gus. She wasn’t sure whether he would help her, particularly after how they’d parted the day before, but it was worth a shot.

Amity went over to Gus’s locker at the end of the day.

“Hi, Augustus,” she said.

“Hi,” Gus replied apprehensively.

“Things got a little tense between us yesterday, so I just wanted to make sure there were no hard feelings between us.”

“Oh? No, I don't have any hard feelings. I thought _you'd_ be mad."

"No, not at all!"

Amity wondered, if Gus didn't have any hard feelings about the day before, what about more generally? After all, she'd been pretty terrible to Willow for a long time. Suddenly, she felt guilty for thinking she had any right to ask him for a favor. But she decided to press on. After all, she was only in the situation because she was trying to help him.

"Anyway, I was hoping I could ask you for help with something."

"With what?”

Amity was relieved he hadn't just said no on the spot. “Well, it’s kind of a long story, but basically this girl in my class, Chickadee, thinks I have a potion that can make a big abomination temporarily shrink and wants to see it in action. So, I’d need you to make a small abomination look big, then shrink, and then re-enlarge. Would you be able to do that?”

“Sure, no problem!"

"Thanks, Augustus. That's... that's really nice of you."

"Well, you did try to help me yesterday, even if things didn't really work out. But why does she think you have that potion?”

“Uh… they were showing the potions in class today. I told her earlier that I was going to sneak away a drop of it to test it out, but I lost my nerve. And I don’t want to have to admit that to her. Please don't tell anyone.”

Amity winced saying this. She wished she could’ve come up with an explanation that made her look better.

“Oh,” Gus let out a small laugh. “Don't worry, your secret's safe with me!"

"Thanks. And if you ever need help with anything, you can come to me."

"Actually there _is_ something I could use some help with!”

"Sure, anything."

Gus looked around to make sure no one could overhear. "I've been digging a secret tunnel under Hexside! Another set of hands could really speed things up!"

Amity raised an eyebrow. "Uh... I don't suppose there's anything _else_ you need help with?"

* * *

The next morning, Amity was exhausted. She'd arranged for everyone to meet outside Hexside early in the morning, before anyone else would show up, and on top of that she'd been up late because of the hours she'd spent digging the tunnel. Gus had left her to dig alone after only about 45 minutes. After all, he _was_ getting up early for her sake, and he was younger and needed his sleep. Amity would've been tempted to stop digging earlier than she'd promised, but Gus had been _considerate_ enough to leave an illusion of himself to keep her company.

Amity got to the school first with a big pot containing a tiny abomination and a hollowed-out log she’d found in the woods. Soon, Gus arrived, followed by Chickadee.

“I can’t wait to see this!” Chickadee said, bright and bubbly despite the early hour.

“Then let’s get right to it,” Amity said. “Abomination, rise.”

Gus stood behind Chickadee and drew a circle in the air. The image of a huge abomination rose from the pot, so big it was taller than Hexside.

“Wow, Amity!” Chickadee said. “I had no idea you could make an abomination that big!”

“Well, I usually can’t,” Amity said under her breath. She should’ve been more specific in her instructions to Gus.

Amity took a spare eyedropper with some water in it, careful to make sure Chickadee couldn’t get a close look and see that it wasn’t the potion, and dropped the water onto the abomination’s foot. Gus made the illusion appear to shrink until there was nothing left but the real abomination. Then, Amity commanded the abomination to walk through the hollowed-out log before Gus made it appear to enlarge again. After that, Amity commanded it back into the pot.

“Wow, that was great!” Chickadee said. “But how did you get an abomination that big into that pot?”

“Uh… the pot's bigger than it looks,” Amity said.

“Thanks for letting me see this, Amity! It’s so cool that you snuck a drop of that potion. No one has guts like you!”

“Thanks,” Amity said, wondering how pathetic she must have looked to Gus at that moment.

Chickadee headed into school, leaving Amity and Gus alone.

“Thanks, Augustus,” Amity said. “Sorry you had to get up so early.”

“No problem,” Gus said with a yawn.

"I... I can only imagine what you must think of me now..."

"Oh, don't say that. In fact, I think this whole thing made me understand you a little better."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, having your reputation must come with a lot of pressure."

Amity felt a warm feeling that she wasn't used to. Even if what Gus had just said didn't truly apply to this situation, it was true more generally. "Yeah, sometimes."

"Anyway, I figured you could use a break this time."

"Thanks, Augustus. You're a really good friend." Then, Amity realized she'd just called Gus a friend, and he probably didn't consider her one yet. "In general, I mean. You know, to Willow and other people."

That made Amity think about Willow. She was glad that Willow had had a good friend all this time when she'd abandoned her. It made her want to help Gus out even more.

“Hey, we have some time before class," Amity said. "How’d you like to share some apple blood?” Amity took out a thermos and two cups from her bag.

“No thanks, I’m not thirsty,”

“Uh… but this is really good! Freshly phlebotomized this morning!”

“Well, OK, I’ll give it a try.”

Amity poured them each a glass. “Hey, is that a giraffe behind you?”

“Where?!” Gus turned around, allowing Amity to take out her other eyedropper and drip the potion into his glass.

“Sorry, I guess I was just seeing things.”

Gus took his glass and gulped it down. “Wow, it’s really good! It has a taste I can’t quite place.”

“That’s just because it’s fresh.”

“Well, thanks, Amity! I’ll see you around.”

Gus headed into Hexside as Amity smiled. The hard part was over. Now she could just relax.


	6. Gus's Reign of Terror Begins

Amity was so tired that she spent her first class just focused on staying awake. After all, how would it look if she, the top student, fell asleep in class! She was relieved when class finally ended and rushed into the hallway, where she was approached by Willow.

“Amity,” she said. “Can I talk to you?”

“Of course!” Amity would’ve been happy that Willow was initiating contact between them except she looked concerned.

“It’s about Gus.”

“Who?”

“Gus. Oh, I'm talking about Augustus. Gus is his nickname.”

“Oh. He… never told me he had a nickname.”

“He hasn’t been acting like himself. He’s been really mean.”

Amity started to get worried. “You mean he’s been mean to _you_?” If so, that meant something was seriously wrong.

“No, not to me, but to other people.”

That made Amity relax. Gus had probably just put some people who’d been picking on him in their place.

“He told me that _you_ taught him to be like that,” Willow continued.

“I taught him how to stand up for himself, not how to be mean.”

“I wonder if you can tell the difference.”

That hurt. Amity probably would’ve snapped at Willow if she weren’t still feeling so guilty following the incident in her brain. “Please just trust me, Willow, he’ll be better off now that he knows how to handle people who cross him.”

“I should’ve known something like this would happen. Just stop trying to get Gus to act any different.”

“Hey, would you rather he be picked on and bullied for the rest of his life?”

“He can handle bullies without acting the way you taught him to act. I just hope your influence wears off soon.”

Willow walked away, leaving Amity distraught. Shouldn't Willow of all people see the value in being able to stop people from bullying you? But eventually she'd come to realize that this was for the best. Right?

Amity walked to her locker when she was suddenly approached by Ed and Em. They were acting strange, crouching and looking over their shoulders like they were afraid of something.

“Mittens,” Em said. “We were looking for you. Can you do us a favor?”

“Please?” Ed added.

“What kind of favor?”

“You know Augustus, right?” Em said.

“Well, a little.”

“Do you think you could talk us up to him?” Ed asked.

“Talk you up?”

“Yeah,” Em said. “Like tell him that we’re really smart.”

“And really good at magic.”

“And that we have lots of friends.”

“And no trouble finding dates.”

“And that we’ve been really nice to you lately.”

“And–”

“Guys, guys, slow down! What did he say to you exactly?”

“I don’t want to repeat it,” Em said with a quiver in her voice.

Then Ed looked over his shoulder. “Oh no, it’s Augustus! He’s heading this way!”

“I can’t let him see me with my hair like this!”

“I need to put on some makeup!”

Ed and Em ran off. Amity didn’t think she’d ever seen them that way! They were usually so cool and confident. What could Gus have possibly said to them?

Gus was indeed in the hallway walking towards Amity, like Em had said.

“Hey, Amity!” he said. “I’ve got to hand it to you, you were right! Sometimes you have to stand up for yourself a little. I thought in return I’d do you a favor and put your siblings in their place.”

“What did you say to them?”

“Oh, just a couple of things you never noticed because you’re not in the illusion track like me. Like Emira has trouble casting a simple miniaturization spell. She’s always trying to find ways around having to do it. And whenever Edric has to do an illusion involving a mirror, he always forgets to reverse images.”

“That’s all?”

Gus clasped his hands and rubbed his fingers menacingly. “Oh, that was just the beginning!”

“Augustus, I… appreciate the thought, but I didn’t need you to do that for me.”

“What’s up with you, Amity? You sound like I did two days ago. To think I was so naïve so recently. Your advice worked like a charm! I saw Mattholomule this morning, and by the time I was done with him, he was in tears!”

“That’s great! Wait... you mean he was _almost_ in tears, right?”

“Nope, he was in tears.” Gus replied matter-of-factly.

“Uh... you mean, the tears were starting to well up in his eyes?”

“Come on, Amity, give me a little more credit than that. He was bawling like a baby!”

“Augustus, don’t you think that’s taking things a little too far?”

Gus laughed. “You’re one to talk. You think you've never left Willow in tears? And she’s someone who never did anything to you.”

Amity eyes turned to the ground. “I... I know, but I’m trying to change things now.”

“Yeah, only took you what, a few years and giving Willow serious brain damage? And it’s been what, three days? Let’s see how long this little change of heart of yours lasts.”

Without meaning to, Amity folded her arms in front of her chest and hunched her shoulders forward like she was trying to curl herself into a ball. Normally, she was never at a loss for words when someone was challenging her, but this was different. Gus was acting this way because of _her_ , so she couldn’t really get angry with him. And everything he was saying was not only true, but exactly what she'd been feeling most guilty about the past few days. She just wished he would stop.

“What’s with the sad face?” Gus said. “You can’t take some friendly ribbing?” With that, Gus walked off, laughing.

Amity felt terrible. How could she have been so stupid, using a potion without somehow testing it or knowing exactly what it would do? And so soon after magically messing up Willow’s brain to boot?

Except, what if the potion _had_ done exactly what she’d wanted it to do? Maybe all Gus had done just now was put a bully in her place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out this really cute fanart! (some swearing)
> 
> I'm so grateful! You can check out more of their great work [here!](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/dumbassv32/631196002526937088)


	7. Luz Cheers Amity Up

As Amity made her way through the halls of Hexside throughout the day, it seemed like just about every student in illusion colors looked sad or anxious along with plenty of students from other tracks. And it wasn't just the students.

“I’ve got to look over these notes!” Amity overheard the illusion professor saying to the healing professor. “If Augustus catches me in another mistake in class, I don’t know how I’ll handle it!”

What had she done? And what did it say about her that this was the result when she was trying to do something good? Maybe Gus and Willow were better off without her.

By the end of the day, Amity couldn’t have felt any worse about herself. She wandered aimlessly around the halls and somehow ended up by Luz’s locker. Had she meant to go there?

“Amity!” Luz said when she spotted her. “You OK? You don’t look so good.”

“Hi, Luz. I’m kind of tired. I was up late last night.”

“I was thinking more of how sad you look. Did you fail a test or something?”

“No,” Amity said, too dispirited to even take offense at the implication that her failing a test was even a possibility. She couldn’t believe she was thinking this, but right then she _wished_ that her biggest problem were failing a test.

"In fact, a lot of people look kind of sad today," Luz said. "Did something bad happen that I didn't hear about?"

"I'm guessing you haven't seen Augustus or Willow today?"

"Nope. I don’t have any classes with them today, and I had to run back to the Owl House during lunch because I’d forgotten my report on sea serpents for beast keeping class. Why?”

"Just a hunch. Anyway, the reason I look sad is... I made a big mistake."

“You need my help?” Luz asked. “We made a pretty good team in Willow’s brain.”

Amity winced. She really didn’t need to be reminded of what she’d done to Willow’s brain at that moment.

“Thanks for the offer, Luz, but I don’t need help. The problem’s only temporary.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

Amity sighed. “It is.”

“So, what’s the problem?”

“I’d… rather not say. But I really messed things up. And right after I messed up Willow’s brain, too.”

“You know, Amity, I _might_ have made two mistakes in my life too. Maybe even three.”

Even feeling as low as she did, that made Amity laugh. “Thanks, Luz, but you don’t understand. What I did… it’s really bad.”

“Well, I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what it is.”

“I know, but I don’t need your help this time. Thanks though.”

Then, Amity thought about it, and maybe she did need something from Luz after all.

“Luz, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

Amity hesitated. This was difficult for her to say, and kind of embarrassing. “The first few times we met, I was pretty terrible to you. But you kept trying to befriend me anyway, even when I pushed you away. Why? Why didn’t you just think you’d be better off without me?”

“Well, lots of reasons, I guess.”

“Do you… think you could tell me some of those reasons?”

“OK. I remember I was thinking about Azura and how she was able to befriend Hecate in the fifth book.”

“Oh.” Amity was disappointed. Luz had befriended her just to follow the example of her favorite book?

“But that’s not the only reason!” Luz quickly said, as if picking up on her disappointment. “I got so excited when I found out you like Azura too. And at the Covention, I saw how dedicated you were to learning magic, like I was. And then you undid the everlasting oath. That made me think there might be another side to you than what I'd seen. But the big thing was when I saw you reading to those kids. All the times you were mean, you didn’t really seem happy. But when I saw you at the library, you were so sweet and good with those kids, and it was the happiest I’d ever seen you. It made me think that that’s how you really wanted to act, except you felt like you couldn’t.”

Amity thought about that. “Yeah, I think that was true. So, when you see me now, do you think I act more like the Amity you saw reading to kids, or the one you saw before that?”

“If you’re asking whether I think you’re nicer now than you used to be, then the answer’s ‘Yes’.”

“And... have you ever regretted trying to befriend me?”

“Of course not!

"Really?"

"Never!”

Amity smiled. “Thanks, Luz. I... I kind of needed to hear that.”

“I think you need _this_ too,” Luz said before grabbing Amity in a hug.

Amity felt her heart speed up and warmth come into her cheeks. No one else made her feel quite this way. No one else had _ever_ made her feel quite this way.

Once Luz let go, Amity jumped back. “Luz, you… you can’t just take me by surprise like that!”

“Oh, sorry! You didn’t like it?”

“Well, I wouldn’t say _that_ , exactly.”

Then, Luz averted her gaze. “You know, there _was_ one other reason I kept trying to get you to be my friend. I kind of wanted to get the chance to impress you.”

“Impress me?”

“Yeah! Even when I thought you were mean, it was obvious that you were such a successful witch and student. It made me want to prove myself to you. Like that would mean I really _could_ be a witch.”

“Really?” Amity thought back to their night in the library together. When Luz had drawn herself as Luzura, she’d included a little drawing of Amity going “Wow!” She hadn’t thought much of that since then.

“Yeah,” Luz said. “That led me to do some pretty dumb things, like pretending I knew more spells than I did at the Knee.”

“Luz,” Amity said. “You _have_ impressed me! A lot! You know that, right?”

“Really?”

“Of course! The way you fixed the mess I made in Willow's brain, and the way you defeated the Greater Basilisk and saved me, and then even convinced Principal Bump to let those detention kids study what they wanted. And so many other things! And then there's the way you figured out how to do magic as a human, something I never would've thought possible. And more than that, just how kind you are, even to people who don't deserve it. You've impressed me more than... I even… know how to say.”

“Wow!” Luz said with a big smile. “Thanks, Amity! That means a lot to me.”

Seeing that she’d made Luz so happy made Amity feel good. In fact, it lifted her spirits just as much as Luz’s encouraging words just now had. Whatever damage she’d done slipping Gus that potion, she could fix it. She _would_ fix it. No matter what.

"Luz, I'm really glad you kept reaching out to me, even when I didn't make it easy."

Then, just as Amity was feeling better, she heard a voice from behind her.

“Hey, Luz!”

It was Gus.


	8. Luz Meets the New Gus

As Amity turned around to face Gus, she was instantly filled with a sense of dread. As much as Luz had lifted her spirits just now, she knew that if anyone could bring them back down, it was this version of Gus that she’d created.

“Gus!” Luz said. “I haven’t seen you all day.”

“What’s wrong, Amity?” Gus said. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost. And not a pathetic one like that.” He pointed to a ghost across the hall.

The ghost gasped. “Well, I never!” it said before passing through a wall.

“Anyway, good news! I’m back as President of the Human Appreciation Society! I thought I’d ask you two to come to my first meeting back.”

“Wow, that's great!” Luz said. “Yeah, I'll come! What do you say, Amity?”

Amity figured it was probably best to keep an eye on Gus, as uncomfortable as that might be for her.

“OK,” Amity said.

“So,” Luz said as they walked over to the clubroom. “How’d you get Principal Bump to let you rejoin?”

“I didn’t. But I’d just love to see him try to punish me for it!”

Luz’s brow furrowed. “I don’t get it. What are you going to do if he tries to punish you for it?”

Gus opened his mouth, but then _his_ brow furrowed. Clearly, he hadn’t thought that far ahead. But before long, an expression of confidence returned to his face as he said, “He wouldn’t dare!”

Luz looked confused. "You're acting kind of different, Gus."

“Yeah, it’s all thanks to Amity. She taught me how to be more assertive.”

Luz looked at Amity with her left eyebrow raised. Amity wished she could disappear into a wall like that ghost.

They reached the room where the meeting was to be held. Gus had Luz and Amity sit near the back of the room, leaving the seats closer to the front for the club members.

“OK, I’ve got to set up,” Gus said. “By the way, Luz, I don’t want to hear any comments about the human world from you during this meeting. Don’t act like you know more about the human world than I do.”

Luz laughed. “But, Gus, I _do_ know more about the human world than you do. It’s only natural. I _did_ live there for fourteen years, after all.”

“Yeah, and in that time you came to know it so well that your mom had to send you to a place called Camp Reality Check.”

Luz gasped. “Gus, why would you say that?”

“What, it’s true! And if the rate you’re learning about the Boiling Isles is anything to go by, fourteen years doesn’t sound like enough time for you to learn much of anything.”

Seeing the expression on Luz’s face at that moment hurt Amity even more than Gus’s harsh words towards her earlier that day had.

“Gus,” Luz said in a subdued voice. “That’s really mean.”

“Oh, since when did everyone in this place get such thin skin?”

Gus went to the front of the class to get things ready.

“Luz,” Amity said. “Please don’t be mad at Augustus.”

“I’m not,” Luz said.

“Really?”

“No. I mean, I _did_ get sent to that camp. And I feel like every time I think I have a handle on this place, something comes up showing me that I don’t. Maybe Gus is right.”

“No, Luz! He’s not!”

“That’s nice of you to say, but Gus wouldn't have said that unless there were some truth to it.”

Amity sighed. “Luz… what if he didn’t _really_ say that?”

“What do you mean?”

Amity thought about it. Luz was basically her only real friend, and if she told her about how she’d slipped Gus that potion, she’d probably want to have nothing to do with her ever again.

But she had to do whatever she could to make Luz feel better. And Gus hadn’t done anything wrong. She couldn’t let Luz think that Gus had really meant what he’d just said and allow their relationship to be damaged because of what she did.

“Luz, I need to tell you something.”

“Pipe down, you two!” Gus said. “The club members should be here any minute, and I want to start right on time.”

“Augustus,” Amity said. “I need to tell you this too. In fact, I should’ve told you this a lot sooner.”

“Whatever it is, it can wait,” Gus said.

And before Amity had a chance to say anything more, the door opened, and the members of the Human Appreciation Society shuffled in.


	9. The Human Appreciation Society Meeting

The members of the Human Appreciation Society took their seats.

“Augustus,” Amity said. “Can I talk to you outside for a second?”

“No, it can wait,” Gus said.

“But–”

Gus just glared at Amity, and she froze. She was still intimidated by Gus after what he’d said to her that morning. Was this how Boscha had made Willow feel all this time? How _she’d_ made Willow feel?

“Gus,” Luz said. “Are there more members than before?”

Gus laughed. “Yep, I stopped by the Human Fantasy Club for their lunch meeting where they were roleplaying as humans. After I told them how ridiculous they looked, they dissolved the club and all joined the Human Appreciation Society. They’re lucky I was there to stop them from embarrassing themselves. Right, four-eyes?”

Gus pointed to a demon with four eyes.

“Uh… Yeah, Augustus. W-We’re lucky to have you.”

“OK. Now before we get started, I have to tell you I’m disappointed that you weren’t here earlier.”

“But we’re five minutes early!” one of the club members said.

“Who said you could talk? I don’t care what time it is. You kept me waiting. That’s unacceptable.”

“But–”

“But what?” Gus growled.

“Uh… nothing, sorry.”

Luz stood up. “Gus, what’s gotten into you? You can’t treat people this way! This isn’t like you.”

“It is now! Amity showed me how you have to act to get ahead in this world.”

Amity crouched down in her seat and stared at her desk, but to her surprise, Luz said, “Whatever Amity told you, you must have misinterpreted it.”

Amity looked up at Luz and was filled with warmth. Luz really had faith in her!

Except, maybe that faith was misplaced. Was Gus really acting all that differently than how she’d tried to get him to act at the start of all this? Why had she tried to change him? And even if he wasn’t acting exactly like how she’d told him to act, she was still responsible for his behavior.

“Am I going to have to throw you out?” Gus yelled.

“Yeah, I guess you are! But I’m going to tell everyone else here that you don’t have to put up with this!”

Luz started to walk to the door.

“Wait!” Amity said. “Luz, you don’t understand–”

But before she could finish, one of the club members stood up and said, “Yeah, she’s right! Why are we letting him treat us this way?”

Gus glared. “You’d better sit down if you know what’s good for you!”

“Or what?”

“Or… well… huh…”

Another club member got up. “Yeah! What can Augustus do to us?”

Soon all the students stood up and started walking towards Gus deliberately and menacingly. And it occurred to even Gus’s potion-addled brain that there were a lot more of them than him.

“Guys,” Luz said. “Let’s not do anything drastic, OK?”

“Wait!” Amity said. “This is all a big mistake!”

But the club members kept walking towards Gus without paying either of them any attention.

“Hey, guys, I was just kidding around!” Gus chuckled nervously. “We’re all friends here, right?”

The club members approached his desk.

Gus laughed. “You think this is the real me? I’m just an illusion! The real me’s over there!”

Gus pointed to the back of the room, and as the club members turned to look, he bolted out.

“Let’s get him!” one of the club members said, and they all ran after him followed by Amity and Luz, who were yelling for them to stop.

Gus looked behind him and created a bunch of illusions of himself running in different directions. The club members separated to run after each one. Every time they caught up with one, it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Amity and Luz kept running after the real Gus, or at least what they thought was the real Gus, but when they caught up with it, it disappeared in a puff of smoke too.

“Drat!” Luz said, but Amity was already running in the other direction, desperately hoping she could find him somehow.

Alone in a hallway, Gus breathed a sigh of relief and laughed. “Those suckers!”

Then he spotted a club member coming from around the corner. “Hey everyone, he’s over here!”

Gus started running again when he saw Willow in the hallway.

“Willow! You’ve got to help me! The club’s gone crazy! They’re after me!”

“What?!”

“Make a giant plant to eat them or something!”

“Gus, I can’t do that!”

Then the club members got there.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Willow asked.

But right after that, Amity arrived, drawn by all the noise, and got between Gus and the angry club members.

“Wait!” she said. “Augustus isn’t responsible for anything he’s said today!”

“What do you mean?” It was Luz, who’d gotten there moments after Amity.

Amity sighed. “I… I gave him a potion to make him more aggressive.”

Gus, Willow, and Luz all gasped.

“What?!” Gus said.

“I slipped it in the apple blood I gave you this morning.”

“I should've known Gus would never act this way on his own," Willow said with a frightening expression on her face. "Amity, how could you do that?!”

“I’m sorry. It’s just… ever since I went into your brain, I’ve been feeling so guilty about all the bullying you’ve had to put up with these past few years. So, when I thought Augustus was going through the same thing, I just couldn’t get my mind off it! I overreacted. I just wanted him to be able to protect himself. I never knew this would happen.”

“Well, that was really terrible of you, Amity,” Willow said, although her expression had softened.

“Uh… maybe we should go,” said one of club members, and they left the four of them alone.

“How do we undo it?” Luz asked.

“It’ll wear off by tomorrow morning,” Amity said.

Gus scoffed. “So, this is what happens when Amity Blight tries to turn over a new leaf–”

“Wait, Gus, stop,” Willow said, to Amity's surprise. “You’re not in your right mind right now. Maybe you should wait until tomorrow before saying anything to Amity.”

Gus glared at Willow for an instant, but then said, “OK.” Now that he knew about the potion, he was better able to resist it.

“Let’s get you home, Gus,” Willow said.

As they walked off, Amity could faintly hear their conversation.

“Gus, I noticed that even with the potion, you never said anything mean to _me_ today.”

“Well, I guess there’s not that much mean to say about you.”

“Aww, Gus, you’re making me blush!”

“Although now that I think about it–”

“Let’s just walk home quietly.”

Luz turned to Amity and gave her a stern look, but she saw the expression on her face, and it was obvious how guilty she felt already. And then Luz thought about their conversation earlier that day. Maybe having another person scold her wouldn’t serve any purpose.

“Hey,” Luz said, putting her hand on Amity’s shoulder. “At least no one got hurt. Although it got pretty close there for a second.”

Amity couldn’t look Luz in the eyes. “You probably don’t want to have anything to do with me from now on.”

“What?”

“I can’t blame you.”

Luz sighed. “Amity, you don’t need to worry about me abandoning you any time you make a mistake.”

Amity looked up at Luz. “Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, as long as you try to fix it. And learn your lesson.”

“I have,” Amity said.

“I know. I can tell.”

Luz turned around when Amity called out.

“Wait! Luz, what Augustus said about you today…”

“I know, he didn’t mean it.”

“He didn’t, but also, it’s not true! Not at all! You see things about this world that no one else does." _And people_ , she thought.

Luz turned around and smiled. “Thanks, Amity. Hey, things will look better in the morning.”

Luz walked off. Amity hoped that she was right, but it was hard to believe that at the moment.


	10. Gus Goes Back to Normal

The next morning, Amity approached Willow’s locker.

“Hi, Willow,” she said. “I wanted to apologize to Augustus. Except I’m not sure whether he'd even want to see me.”

“I think he’d appreciate an apology,” Willow said.

“OK. So… what does this mean for the two of us?”

Willow considered. “I think I’m just going to let this incident stay between you and Gus.”

Amity nodded. It was probably the best she could reasonably expect.

* * *

Amity went over to Gus’s locker.

“Hi, Augustus,” she said. “How are you feeling?”

Gus glared. “What makes you think I want to see you?”

Amity stepped back and gasped, but then Gus laughed.

“I’m just messing with you! The potion wore off! I feel fine!”

“Oh, good.” Amity hadn’t been worried that the potion hadn’t worn off. She’d just thought Gus was angry with her. After all, he had every right to be.

“Anyway,” Gus said. “I said some pretty mean things to you yesterday. Sorry.”

“W-what? Augustus, _you_ have nothing to apologize for! I came to apologize to you!”

“Thanks, Amity. But I was thinking about it, and it’s kind of nice that you went to such lengths to try to help me.”

“That’s really magnanimous of you, but I did something really bad to you. Good intentions don’t make up for that. Anyway, I figured I should go to everyone you were mean to yesterday and tell them the truth about the potion.”

“I’m glad you said that, Amity! I was going to ask you to do that.”

“It’s the least I could do.”

“In fact, I already made a list!”

Gus pulled out a big stack of paper from his locker. Amity sighed. It was going to be a long day.

* * *

Going through the list was difficult and embarrassing, but it made Amity feel better. She even talked to Vasya. Gus hadn’t been under the influence of the potion when he’d talked to her, but she still felt responsible. And Vasya seemed to cheer up after hearing it.

She told Chickadee the truth too, even though Gus hadn’t had a run-in with her after taking the potion. But the day didn’t feel complete without talking to her. And she took it surprisingly well.

“I guess I shouldn’t like being lied to,” she’d said. “But, I don’t know, the whole thing’s kind of funny isn’t it? And all this time I thought you seemed kind of unapproachable. I was pretty afraid when I asked you about that potion. But now I feel like maybe we’re not as far apart as I thought.”

Amity smiled. It was funny, just a few weeks ago she would’ve been upset by another student thinking she was more approachable rather than less.

She even told Ed and Em, and if anything, they seemed kind of impressed with her. That was a scary thought: Ed and Em impressed by the troublemaking _she’d_ done.

“Well, that’s the whole list,” Amity said at the end of the day. “But you left one out. I overheard the illusions professor talking about you. I guess I’m going to get in a lot of trouble.”

“Oh, you don’t need to talk to her. I spoke to her already.”

“Oh. But… why haven’t I been called to Principal Bump’s office or anything?”

“I didn’t tell her the real story! I just told her that I had a bad fang-ache yesterday.”

“Really? But, won’t she be upset with you?”

“Nah, since I’m younger than everyone else in my class, she gives me a little leeway. There was no need to get you in trouble.”

“I… I don’t know to say! Thanks, Augustus!”

“You can call me ‘Gus’. It’s a _human_ nickname Luz gave me!”

“Really?” Amity smiled. “OK, ‘Gus’.”

Amity thought about Gus. At the beginning of this whole thing, she’d thought that he needed to be a little more like her. But maybe it was really the other way around. She almost said so, but she was too embarrassed.

So instead she said, “Gus, if there’s anything I can do for you, anything at all, just say the word, OK? And this time I promise I won’t make so much of a mess of it.”

Gus grinned. “Well, there _is_ one thing…”

Amity groaned. “OK, I’ll get the shovels.”

“Great! At this rate, the tunnel will be done in just a few months! As long as it doesn't collapse on us."

"Collapse?!"

"Don't worry, I'm like 75% sure it won't."

"That's... not that high..."

"Now, we have to start being careful because I think we’re starting to get deep enough that we risk running into goblins.”

“Wonderful,” Amity said.

And the two of them walked off together.


	11. Epilogue: Amity and Gus Dig a Tunnel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guess this is more like a short sequel than an epilogue.

As Amity paused to wipe her brow, she looked behind her and saw that they’d made some pretty good headway. In fact, the tunnel was getting deep enough that it was getting hard to see. Amity casted a light spell, which of course made her think of Luz.

“Hey!” Gus said. “Looks like you’re getting into the spirit of it.”

“Huh?”

“You were smiling just now.”

“Oh. Yeah, I… I guess I’m starting to enjoy myself.”

Digging a tunnel was hard work. Amity had tried making abominations to do the digging, naturally, but she'd run into a number of problems until finally deciding to give up on the idea and just pick up a shovel.

Amity plunged her shovel into the earth again when she struck something hard.

“Hey, Gus,” she said. “Have you ever found anything digging this tunnel?”

“Like what?” Gus asked.

“I don’t know. Wasn’t Hexside built on a rival school it conquered? We might find some of their old stuff here.”

Amity dug some more until she’d mostly unearthed the artifact. It was a trophy.

“Hey, Gus, take a look at this.”

Gus came over. “Wow!”

Amity tried to make out the inscription. “Best… contortionist?”

Gus picked it up, and suddenly his limbs and joints felt looser. Gus bent over backwards and put his head between his legs.

“Gus, what are you doing?!”

“Check it out! Holding these trophies gives us the abilities of the people who won them!”

“Whoa! Hey, be careful, Gus. If you drop that trophy while you’re in a strange position…”

Gus gasped. “I didn’t think of that!”

He set himself straight and put the trophy down.

“You think there are other trophies around here?” Gus asked.

“Let’s find out.”

After digging in that spot for a little longer, they’d found quite the assortment of trophies.

“Most Arms,” Amity read. She picked it up and suddenly sprouted a bunch of arms all over her body. Luckily, the magic in the trophy had also made her grow sleeves to accommodate them.

“Wow!” Gus said.

“26, 27, 28… 29 arms,” Amity said.

"No wonder Hexside conquered them. I've seen students here with _way_ more arms than that."

"Maybe demons didn't have so many arms back then and that was considered a lot."

“With all these arms, we'll finish digging in no time!”

Amity tried moving them and shook her head. “It’s no good. I can’t control them. My brain’s not designed for it, and the trophy didn’t change that.”

Gus examined another one. “ _Least_ tentacles? I guess this one won’t do anything.”

Gus picked it up, and to his surprise, his tongue disappeared. He threw it back down in a panic.

“Stay away from that one!” he said.

Gus thought the trophy for Greenest Thumb would give him some instant plant magic knowledge. Maybe he could surprise Willow with it. But all it did was turn his thumb bright green. The Quickest Stirrer one wasn’t much use to them at that moment. And all Perfect Attendance did was transport them into an empty classroom in Hexside.

“Too bad there’s no trophy for Fastest Digger,” Amity said.

“Yeah, nothing too useful,” Gus said. “How about we call it a day? You want any of the trophies?”

“No thanks," Amity answered. "You can keep them.”

“OK. Maybe we’ll find some more tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah. You’ll be here, right?”

Amity was surprised. She’d thought that Gus only expected her to dig this one day. But after what she’d done, how could she say no?

“Yeah,” Amity said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

* * *

A few days later, Gus was having lunch at Hexside, excited for the day to be over so he could get back to the tunnel. Now that he and Amity were progressing so much more than he ever had on his own, Gus was getting more and more enthusiastic about the project. Each day, the digging session got a little longer.

“Hi, Gus,” Willow said when she arrived at the table. “You know, I feel like the past few days we've barely seen each other except for lunch.”

“Oh. Yeah, Amity and I have been spending a lot of time on the tunnel.”

“I don’t know, Gus. I’m a little worried about you spending so much time around Amity after what she just did to you.”

“Don’t worry. She’d never try to slip me a potion like that again.”

“Maybe, but before that she was trying to turn you into a bully. I’m worried she’ll be a bad influence.”

“Bad influence? You’re talking about me like I’m some little kid you have to look after.”

“I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Then can you trust me on this?”

Willow thought about it. “OK, Gus. You’re right. So, can we do something together after school today?”

“Why don’t you come help with the tunnel? We’re making amazing progress!”

“Uh… no thanks.”

* * *

Meanwhile, Amity was skipping lunch to get an early start on her homework for the day. The tunnel was taking a toll on her. She wasn’t getting much sleep, being forced to stay up late doing homework now that so much of her time was spent digging. Her whole body was sore, and she had blisters on her hands. She was even starting to dream about the tunnel in those few hours of sleep she did get.

After school that day, the digging session went on for an especially long time. But by this point, Amity wasn’t just doing it because she felt guilty about slipping Gus the potion. Gus was so excited and passionate about it, and she kind of liked seeing that.

“At this rate, we’ll be done sooner than I ever dreamed!” Gus said, looking ecstatic.

Despite how sick of digging she was, Amity smiled. “I’m glad you’re happy, Gus.”

Amity realized that except for reading to kids at the library, it had been a long time since she’d made someone that happy with just her company. Seeing Gus like this made her feel good about herself.

“And you are too, right?” Gus asked.

"Uh..." Amity knew that it couldn’t go on like this forever. But she also wasn't looking forward to seeing Gus get disappointed. She’d tell him tomorrow. Or maybe the day after. She could tough it out for a couple more days, right? "Yeah, of course.”

“Great! I was going to say we should call it a day, but how about we put in another half hour?!”

* * *

The next day, as Amity was getting her lunch from her locker, she groaned upon the realization that she’d forgotten it again, which was especially unfortunate because she’d skipped breakfast that morning to get a little extra sleep.

Willow was heading to the cafeteria, not looking forward to the prospect of listening to Gus yammer on about the tunnel the whole time, when she spotted Amity and immediately noticed that she wasn’t looking too good. She had dark circles under her eyes and was stretching out her arms and shoulders while grimacing. Willow was a little uneasy about talking to Amity, but she decided to go over.

“Amity?”

“Hi, Willow,” she said.

“Is... is that dirt on your clothes?”

“Oh.” Amity yawned. “Yeah, I guess I should’ve washed them a third time.”

Willow was stunned. The idea that Amity was running herself ragged to make someone else happy… it was just so different from what Willow's conception of her had been for a long time now.

“Are you OK?” she asked.

Amity was kind of happy that Willow even cared whether or not she was OK, but she also didn’t like the idea of anyone thinking she couldn’t take care of herself.

“I’m fine!” Amity insisted. “Don’t worry about me. Um… thanks though. For asking.”

Willow thought about how she’d been worried that it would be bad for Gus to be around Amity so much. She hadn’t really considered the possibility of the reverse.

“You know," Willow said. "Gus can get… carried away with things sometimes. And when he gets really excited about something, it can be kind of hard to say no to him. If he’s pushing you too hard, I could talk to him about it.”

Amity hesitated, but ended up saying, “No, he’s not.”

“Well, OK,” Willow said before walking off.

* * *

After school, Amity dug strenuously as Gus chattered on cheerfully.

“Hey,” Gus said. “I was thinking we could make even faster progress if we started meeting in the mornings!”

“Mornings?” Amity said with trepidation.

“You can do that, right?”

“Well… that might be kind of tough for me.”

“Oh,” Gus said with a sigh. “OK.”

Amity glanced at Gus. His head was downturned, and he looked _so_ disappointed.

“But… but… maybe I could do a _few_ mornings, here and there.”

“Really?” Gus’s face suddenly took on the big smile that Amity had grown to like seeing.

Amity went back to her digging, but before long she started feeling a little funny.

“Gus, is it getting kind of warm in here?”

“Huh? Not to me. If anything, it’s a little chilly.”

Amity was starting to feel dizzy.

“Huh?” Gus said. “Amity, are you OK? Amity!”

And that was the last thing Amity heard before losing consciousness.

* * *

The next thing Amity knew, she was opening her eyes to see Luz’s face.

“Huh? What happened?”

“You passed out,” Luz said.

“What?” Amity looked around. They’d taken her outside of the tunnel.

“Here,” Luz said, handing her a box of apple blood. “Drink this.”

Amity did, and she immediately felt a lot better.

“How long was I out?”

“Just a few minutes. Gus came to get me as soon as it happened. Luckily, I was staying after class to do a little extra work on my construction project.” Luz turned to Gus. “Do you know if she hit her head?”

Gus shook his head. “She didn’t. I got under her and stopped her from falling too hard.”

“You got under me?" Amity said. "I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No,” Gus said.

“Oh, good. Thanks Gus. And thank _you_ , Luz. How did you know just what to do?”

“Once my mom and I were at the grocery store when someone near us started feeling faint," Luz said. "And my mom went over to help. When’s the last time you had something to eat or drink?”

“Not since last night.”

“No wonder. How are you feeling?”

Amity stood up slowly. “I feel fine now.”

Luz breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. But you’d better see the nurse to make sure.”

“OK. I’m just so embarrassed.”

“Why should you be embarrassed?” Luz asked.

“Well… you must think I’m a complete mess.”

“I don’t think that at all!”

“Really?”

Luz nodded.

“I’m sorry to cause you so much trouble,” Amity said.

“It’s no trouble!”

“Thanks so much, Luz. I’ll go to the nurse, but do you think I could talk to Gus alone for a minute first?”

“Sure,” Luz said before walking away.

“I’m so sorry, Amity,” Gus said. “I never thought something like this would happen.”

“It's OK Gus. I’m fine, maybe thanks to you being there. And it wasn’t your fault. I should’ve told you that the digging was getting to be too much.”

“Yeah, but even though you didn’t say anything, I could tell you were really tired.”

“You could?”

“Yeah. I told myself that if it was really bad, you’d say something. But I kind of knew that you were still feeling guilty about the potion and wouldn’t say no to more digging no matter how much I was asking of you.”

“Hey, after what I did to you, you had every right to want me to make up for it.”

“What? No, that’s not why.”

“Then what was it?”

“Well… it’s just, sometimes I come up with ideas that everyone else thinks are silly or impossible. No one else thought this tunnel was a good idea. Even Willow would never help me with it. I guess I liked having some company for once.”

Amity smiled. “I don’t think anyone could look at this tunnel now and say it’s impossible.” She decided not to address the “silly” part. “And I didn’t dig the tunnel just because I was feeling guilty. I did it because I like spending time with you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. But… I can’t do it anymore. I’m sorry, but it’s just too much on top of everything else.”

Gus nodded sadly. “I understand.”

* * *

After that, Amity and Gus didn’t see much of each other until Grom. Following the main event, the defeat of Grometheus, Amity was happy to just have some fun. During the night, she spotted Gus and went over to him.

“Hey, Gus,” she said. “Nice job with the commentary.”

“Thanks! And great job defeating Grometheus!”

“Thanks. Although… I don’t know whether I could’ve done it alone.” Amity realized that there was something she was curious about, in spite of herself. “So… how’s the tunnel going?”

Gus sighed. “I haven’t made much progress. It’s kind of hard digging alone after getting used to having company.”

That made Amity feel kind of sad. After working so hard on the tunnel, she realized she’d become kind of invested in the project. Even though she’d stopped working on it, she wanted to see it get finished.

“I did find another trophy though,” Gus said.

Amity’s eyes widened. “Really?!”

“Want to see it?”

“Yeah!”

The two went to Gus’s locker and he pulled out a trophy.

“Best Dancer,” Amity read. “Might come in handy tonight.”

“Hey, we’re better dancers than whoever this guy was.”

Amity laughed. Looking at the trophy, she thought about her time in the tunnel. There had been a certain satisfaction in seeing their progress each day. And even if it hadn’t been fun, exactly, there had been some really fun moments. Actually, there had been a _lot_ of fun moments. And it was something that she and Gus had shared, just the two of them. As odd as it sounded, ever since she’d stopped, there had been times when she’d missed it.

“Gus… we’d have to set boundaries. I wouldn’t be able to do it every day, and I could only work on it for maybe half an hour at a time. But… maybe every once in a while, we could work on the tunnel together.”

Gus gasped. “Really?”

Amity nodded.

Gus gave Amity one of those big grins she remembered from their time in the tunnel when they were making especially good progress, and she really liked seeing it again. “Great! Hey, we could get started tonight after the dance!”

“Gus…”

“OK, OK, we can start in… maybe a couple of days.”

Amity smiled. “Yeah, that sounds good. Now, what do you say we get back to the dance floor?”

“Yeah! By the way, Amity, you haven’t been feeling faint or dizzy or anything tonight, have you?”

“Huh? No, I’ve been fine. Why?”

“I just wanted to make sure because you seemed really flushed earlier. It was when you were with Luz. Suddenly you got really red and– hey, now you’re getting flushed again! Do you feel like you’re about to pass out? You’d better sit down!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I wrote another story focusing on Gus and Amity [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271178/chapters/63954265) for anyone interested.


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